Frank Hamer- A Drive through the country – 8/3/1986

Part 1 - Frank tells Andy about his neighbors and family as he drives through the countryside. Mentions Lige Evans who lived near the railroad tracks off Rabbitsville Road, and Angeline Hamer – who he has a picture of. Angeline is the daughter of Thomas Hamer and married Lige Evans. He said Rabbitsville was a lime kiln and quarry that LeHigh used out that road. There was a Rabbitsville School too.

Frank showed Andy the homestead where he grew up. The house burned, just the barns are left. They used to go to town through what is now the Park, turned at the Walker Crossing. Dead end now. Shows Andy the Hostetter School, owners burned it down. Frank tried to get it moved into the park but… This was the school Frank went to as a boy. They used to hold School reunions here for a lot of years, but later they moved their reunions to the park.  Showed him where there was a big apple farm. He worked for $1/day in that orchard.

Showed him Harry Smith’s home – burned now. Showed him Meryl’s place, they grew wheat, corn, alfalfa. He showed him a barn he helped build. This was part of his dad’s farm but they sold out. In 1929 they settled their dad’s estate. Frank was still trying to farm it all until 1929. He owned enough property that he could still make it without borrowing money and buying his dad’s land back at the sale- good thing, because the next year started the Depression. The people who bought it had the store in Mitchell and gave the farm to their daughter and son-in-law. A couple years later the woman caught her stove on fire and burned up herself and her 2 kids. Frank said every field Andy could see, Frank had plowed and worked with horses. Frank’s dad had a little over 200 acres. Showed where they used to have a tenant house. And his Uncle Ralph’s house where Frank lived in in 1926. The land was his grandpa’s land before his dad’s. The farm was divided between Uncle Ralph, Uncle Frank and his dad Albert.

Points out the Mitchell Waterworks which has been there since the early 1920s. Frank said he helped dig the pits – pick and shovel – in maybe 1917. He then drove the mule that hauled the dirt out of the hole so they could dig deeper. There was a big railroad trestle down in that muddy area too that kept the railroad up high there by where Mill Creek came in. He showed them where Hugh Hamer built the flatboats at the Boat Yard Bend, close to the Buddha/Rivervale Bridge.  Washed out the old bridge in 1913. He worked that whole fall with a team of horses helping build the new bridge. Everything was shipped by railroad and the teamsters hauled it to the site. He hauled sand and cement too. LeHigh used to bag their cement in 95 pound cloth bags and he had to unload it- 2 railroad cars full, and because it got there too soon he had to unload it and put it in Turley’s barn and then when they were ready, load it up and haul it out there and unload it. He was 17 years old and got $4/day for his labor and team. They worked 10 hours/day. He’d bought a new buggy and was able to pay it off and buy a new harness with his wages.

Part 2. Frank said Hugh Hamer owned everything between the Boatyard and the Mill at one time. They built them and then waited for the river to rise so they could float them off loaded with goods. One spring they never got high water and sat there all summer loaded with whiskey until the next year. Hugh actually hung a cup there and a spigot if anyone wanted any whiskey that summer they could help themselves.

Walked the railroad tracks and Frank talks about riding the train. He could ride from Mitchell to Bedford for 20 cents. Tells about the Muddy Branch trestle again. Stopped and walked around the property of Harry Smith. His grandson lived there now Frank thought. Uncle Ralph owned it at one time. Frank said he stayed there about 2 years with his grandma when his parents moved to Bedford after his grandpa had died. He could still walk to the schoolhouse. There was a real nice barn too that burned. His grandfather must have been born in the Village but he lived in this house most of his life. George built this place and was big on horses. There was a smokehouse that they smoked a lot of pork. It was 2 stories, they hung the meat upstairs, and the big iron stove was downstairs. Above where they hung the meat, they had a 40-gallon tank of water- that was pumped in by the windmill. The hot water was pumped into the kitchen, the chicken house, and the barn. They had a washhouse at the end of the barn with a big stone fireplace. They had a stone root cellar. Frank said if it got real cold and if she was afraid it might freeze in the root cellar she’d put a bucket of coals in the cellar to keep things from freezing.  

Tramps would often come by and ask for food. There was always a pile of wood to chop and his grandma would tell them if they’d chop some wood she’d fix them a plate of food. His grandma always kept 2 plates set at the table so if anyone looked in, it looked like there was someone living with her but she lived alone for many years but was fearless. Frank later took over this farm and Uncle Ralph’s farm too. Frank had planned to live in this house but then when his dad died, he moved up in the home his dad had built. Then Ralph rented out the house. Later Henry Turley got this farm and lost it to the bank. It was 180 acres. He tried to get it back but couldn’t make the payments. Frank was born in his grandparent’s house. Uncle Ralph and Grace moved into that house after his grandma died.

Showed Andy a railroad bridge. They put it in between trains. A train came through at 8:00 and another one was due at 1:00. So they built the bridge on rollers and rolled it out and got it in place before the next train came through. Back in Bono Township, Frank showed Andy where the Turley sisters lived. A nice home with some of the nicest furniture Frank said you’d ever see. Their grandfather built the house. Mrs. Fitzgibbons lives nearby. She was an aunt of the Turley girls he thinks.